Monday, April 26, 2010

Years ago I picked up a gem at a used bookstore, Georgia Heard's Writing Toward Home. The title spoke to my identity crisis of the moment: My parents had retired to Florida, overwhelming me with a sense "you can't ever go home again." Heard's pithy and poetic chapters on developing a creative life are worth savoring. In a chapter entitled "Where does poetry hide?" she includes this poem:

Valentine for Ernest Mann
by Naomi Shihab Nye

You can't order a poem like you order a taco.
Walk up to a counter, say "I'll take two"
and expect it to be handed to you
on a shiny plate.

Still, I like your spirit.
Anyone who says, "Here's my address,
write me a poem," deserves something in reply.
So I'll tell you a secret instead:
poems hide. In the bottoms of our shoes,
they are sleeping. They are the shadows
drifting across ceilings the moment
before we wake up. What we have to do
is live in a way that lets us find them....(Qtd. in Heard, Georgia.Writing Toward Home. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1995. p. 10.)

I found tremendous encouragement in Heard's commentary on it. She says, "We don't necessarily need to change our lives around to be writers or to be writing more. We must change the way we look at our lives. By looking at the small, everyday circumstances and happenings, we find ideas to fill volumes."

Where have you found poetic or fictional material hiding in the everyday? Have you ever had a change in perspective--how you look at your life--that opened up a well of ideas for you?

16
comments:

Yes, inspiration and ideas are everywhere. I am never short of material or inspiration, instead my 'problem' is the overwhelming number of them. Poems, story ideas, intriguing questions... they are everywhere.

Usually, someone's blog post or twitter comment can spark a different perspective. Recently, it's "Be Happy." I have no idea where this writing thing will take me and it might turn out differently than I expect. But I can't let every rejection and the desire to be published affect my happiness. Why should it? So I'm trying to adopt that attitude. Not that rejection won't be hard, but I'm trying to lighten up!

Stumbling on ideas is such a gift. I find haiku prompts in nature, which makes sense since that's what haiku is about. Sometimes I dream of characters for whom I want to develop stories. Occasionally, it's something someone else says or does that is the seed of inspiration. I guess we need to be open so we don't miss these opportunities.

I love this poem (and this post) because it speaks of a shift in perspective. I recently realized from a blog post that "I am a writer" doesn't cut it. The verb "to do" is so much more powerful than "to be." Write, instead of talking about being a writer. That small shift in perspective has opened creative doors for me.

My inspiration came, as cliche as it sounds, the day my daughter was born. I knew the second I held her, my life was never going to be the same again and I would do my darndest to make sure she never lived my life. I was inspired to take my dreams and fulfill them because if I didn't, what was I teaching her?

People, places, moments... all of them offer ideas. And when I started writing in earnest, that changed my perspective utterly. Now I can't stop the ideas, and I wouldn't change a thing. (Except perhaps I'd make more time for writing instead of tweeting and blog-hopping. I might change that....)

I adore that poem. I was always complimented for finding the magic in the mundane (back in the days when I wrote more poetry.) I used to find it hard to come up with plots -- but I've got ideas rolling around. Many of my ideas have sprung from the stories people tell me. It happens in the bank, it happened in the restaurant where I worked as a waitress, and sometimes it happens randomly. I find striking up conversations with strangers is the ultimate way to get material.

What a great poem. I love NSN. Yes, in answer to your question. In fact, my new script is based on life as I see it. And, looking at my life and not being able to rearrange anything, and accepting I have control over so little, freed me. It showed me that I can write on recipe cards, and office at coffee shops, and listen, listen, listen to all the great stories floating around me.

About Me

City dweller, word nerd, Indie film enthusiast and incurable Anglophile. Professor's wife and mom to an arty teen. Follower of the Good Shepherd, who is faithful when we are faithless. My poetry and fiction explore the places where heart and soul are tested and growing up truly begins.

I'm also a freelance editor who has been editing professionally since 1991. How can I help you make your manuscript shine? Click my "editing services" tab to learn more

I post every Thursday (and on other days when the need arises or the spirit moves).

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